The Father and I Are Working

God is Just and Merciful

Justice and Sabbath Laws

John 5:9-18 The Message

8-9 Jesus said, “Get up, take your bedroll, start walking.” The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.
9-10 That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, “It’s the Sabbath. You can’t carry your bedroll around. It’s against the rules.”
11 But he told them, “The man who made me well told me to. He said, ‘Take your bedroll and start walking.’”
12-13 They asked, “Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?” But the healed man didn’t know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.
14 A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, “You look wonderful! You’re well! Don’t return to a sinning life or something worse might happen.”
15-16 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.
17 But Jesus defended himself. “My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”
18 That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God.

For Reflection

This story illustrates not only the uselessness of the Sabbath rules it points out that the healed man was not only physically healed but spiritually healed as well. The warning that something unpleasant would happen was not that God would deliver death blows if the man returned to a life that separated him from God. It was that unpleasantness would be a natural result of beliefs or actions which were inconsistent with a loving relationship with God. 

It was not only from his physical infirmity that the man suffered and was healed.  He was also healed from his spiritual blindness. His infirmity was a part of his human condition. His spiritual infirmity resulted from his inability to see beyond his circumstance into God's intent for his life, his purpose for being. Jesus warns that the results of disturbing a right relationship with God are far more harmful than physical sufferings.

Pray

Pray so that you will be able to see beyond your corporeal existence into God's will for you in God's kingdom.

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